He thought he smelled gas on the first flight of stairs, although of course that was ridiculous. But the smell was quite plain when he got into the flat. As he came up the staircase...

On the opposite side of the road, where the long rows of glass roofs of the Pinker Nurseries had caught the sun, a housing estate was in process of being built. He had lost a...

His mind went back again to that first encounter; to himself, a boy, looking down from the boat-house window on to those four, those sunflower heads. Then and later he had found unreasonable beauty in...